Girton Village Day Nursery

Inclusion: Strong standard

Leaders and staff consistently and proactively promote an inclusive culture where every child feels respected and supported to achieve their full potential. They recognise that children and families have diverse needs, and use their own knowledge of individual circumstances to remove barriers and ensure all children can access high-quality experiences. Staff understand children's starting points, capabilities and next steps in learning, adapting their teaching to enable every child to participate fully in the curriculum.

Leaders use additional funding effectively to improve outcomes and increase access to the setting. For example, leaders have used funding to provide practical support that removes barriers to attendance and helps each child settle successfully into the setting. They used this support to work alongside each family, providing guidance and resources beyond the setting to promote consistency between home and the setting.

Effective strategies are implemented promptly to identify the support children need. Close working relationships with parents and other professionals ensure that targeted and tailored support is quickly accessed. Through strong relationships, responsive practice and effective use of resources, leaders ensure that children develop confidence, a sense of belonging and the skills they need to make rapid progress.

Curriculum and teaching: Strong standard

The curriculum is well sequenced and ambitious, ensuring that all children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, build secure knowledge and skills over time. Leaders ensure consistent practice, high expectations and regular reflection across the setting. Staff have a strong knowledge of children's development and can use this knowledge to adapt teaching effectively. The layout of the provision encourages sustained exploration for the youngest children and creative and problem-solving activities for the older children. There is carefully planned progression in the sequenced learning, with a strong emphasis on developing independence and communication skills. This enables children to become more confident, resilient learners who are well prepared for their next stage of education.

Staff know about the learning of their key children and speak positively about their starting points, progress and achievement. This information is used to strategically identify what children know and can do, address gaps in learning and support their development. Staff know children well and recognise that every child develops at their own pace. They celebrate children's individual strengths and ensure a consistent approach in maintaining high expectations for each child.

Leaders explain that they adapt their curriculum each year to support the needs of the children, with a focus on self-help skills for the current children. Staff interactions with children are purposeful and highly responsive, which consistently strengthens learning opportunities during play. This was evident in the garden, as babies enthusiastically sang a nursery rhyme before joyfully extending their learning by drawing stars on the chalkboard. Staff responded sensitively to the children's interests, creating meaningful opportunities to reinforce communication, creativity and early mark-making skills through play.

Achievement: Strong standard

Children's achievements demonstrate the positive impact of the leaders' ambitious curriculum. They make clear progress over time, building on their individual strengths and interests. Children spoke confidently and enthusiastically about their experiences at the setting, sharing what they enjoyed and explaining their favourite activities. Younger children were deeply engaged in their play and exploration, demonstrating confidence to investigate their environment independently while knowing that familiar adults were available to provide reassurance when needed. Children's achievements are celebrated and recognised, with regular opportunities to share progress with parents. This strong partnership supports continuity between home and the setting and helps families understand how they can further support their children's learning.

Children are encouraged to express their ideas, ask questions and share their thinking. Children learn early mathematical concepts and literacy skills because these are embedded naturally within play. This includes measuring when making play dough with lavender and preparing carrots using a range of tools. Children demonstrate a deeper understanding of concepts through repeated opportunities to practise and apply learning. Building on prior learning and applying knowledge and skills in different contexts enables children across the nursery to overcome barriers and achieve.

Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines: Strong standard

Staff build respectful relationships with children and consistently model kindness, patience and good manners. They sensitively support children to understand boundaries, manage their feelings and consider the needs of others. Staff model positive interactions and use a combination of words, gestures and visual cues to support communication by, for example, encouraging babies to use signs and language to say 'please' and 'thank you' during mealtimes.

As children move through the setting, staff skilfully prepare them for future transitions, including moving rooms and starting school. Parents are part of the transition process from the baby room into the pre-school room as this is recognised as a significant event for children. Parents and carers can spend time alongside the staff to support their child's transition successfully and help them feel confident and safe.

Leaders ensure that routines are purposeful and contribute to children's learning and development throughout the day. As a result, children demonstrate positive attitudes to learning, engage well with others and develop the confidence they need in readiness for school.

Children's welfare and wellbeing: Strong standard

Leaders place children's welfare and wellbeing at the heart of the provision. They demonstrate unwavering commitment to ensuring every child can access high-quality education, recognising that barriers extend beyond identified special educational needs and/or disabilities. Leaders work closely to provide timely support for families experiencing ill health, redundancy or increased work pressures by providing short-notice, flexible sessions for children to attend.

Healthy lifestyles are woven into the curriculum with opportunities to grow vegetables and fruits to be used in the nutritious meals provided, helping children to understand about healthy eating. Staff promote independence from an early age by teaching children to manage their own self-care. Babies wash their hands and faces using individual face cloths, while older children independently access water throughout the day. Staff recognise these opportunities as learning moments and adapt routines as children develop, using photos on babies' cups for recognition before replacing these photos with written names on bottles for older children. This ensures that children confidently manage age-appropriate tasks and begin to take responsibility for themselves.

Staff build warm, trusting relationships through a key-person system that enables children to feel safe and secure right from the start. For example, where possible, children who speak English as an additional language are supported by a key person who can speak their home language. This ensures effective and secure relationships that help children to develop confidence, resilience and a strong sense of belonging. Children are emotionally secure, demonstrate positive attitudes to learning and thrive in an environment where their welfare, safety and wellbeing are consistently prioritised.

Leadership and governance: Strong standard

Leaders have established a strong leadership structure with a new manager, recently appointed to strengthen the established leadership capacity of the setting. Effective oversight of staff development has ensured that this is a priority to drive the setting forward and to provide the best outcomes for children. Leaders identify the importance of consistency in the implementation of the curriculum and its goals and their aims for what they would like children to achieve.

Leaders monitor practice through regular supervisions, observations and staff meetings to nurture staff development and continually strengthen the quality of provision. Leaders place a strong emphasis on staff wellbeing, creating an open culture where staff feel listened to, valued and supported. For example, recent changes to the lunchtime routine were implemented by the room leader after discussions with leaders, and this has had a positive effect on children's wellbeing and has created a calmer environment.

Staff speak positively about the guidance they receive and explain that leaders act on their ideas and suggestions for improving the setting in a collaborative way. This approach strengthens staff confidence, promotes continuous improvement and contributes to high-quality experiences for children. As a result, the leaders' vision of ensuring every child is supported to thrive underpins staff practice. Staff have high expectations for every child and respond sensitively to meet children's and their families' needs. Families value the strong relationships they have developed with staff and leaders. This effective partnership working ensures children receive consistent support and empowers families to play an active role in promoting their children's learning and development and wellbeing.